The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story
learnt from a treatise on Pátála the proper charms and ceremonies for
propitiating Hátakesána. [234] And I went to Sríparvata and performed
a course of asceticism there for propitiating Siva, and Siva, being
pleased with it, appeared to me and said to me,
'Go; after you have married a Daitya maiden and enjoyed pleasures
in the regions below the earth, you shall return to me; and listen;
I will tell you an expedient for obtaining those delights. There
are on this earth many openings leading to the lower regions; but
there is one great and famous one in Kasmíra made by Maya, by which
Ushá the daughter of Bána introduced her lover Aniruddha into the
secret pleasure-grounds of the Dánavas, and made him happy there. And
Pradyumna, in order to deliver his son, laid it open, making a door
in one place with the peak of a mountain, and he placed Durgá there,
under the name of Sáriká, to guard that door, after propitiating her
with hundreds of praises. Consequently even now the place is called
by the two names of Peak of Pradyumna and Hill of Sáriká. So go and
enter Pátála with your followers by that famous opening, and by my
favour you shall succeed there.'
"When the god had said this, he disappeared, and by his favour I
acquired all knowledge at once, and now I have come to this land of
Kasmíra. So come with us, king, to that seat of Sáriká, in order that
I may conduct you to Pátála, to the maid that you love." When the
ascetic had said this to king Bhúnandana, the latter consented and
went with him to that seat of Sáriká. There he bathed in the Vitastá,
and worshipped Ganesa, and honoured the goddess Sáriká, and performed
the ceremony of averting evil spirits from all quarters by waving
the hand round the head, [235] and other ceremonies. And then the
great ascetic, triumphing by the favour of the boon of Siva, revealed
the opening by scattering mustard-seeds in the prescribed manner,
and the king entered with him and his pupils, and marched along the
road to Pátála for five days and five nights. [236] And on the sixth
day they all crossed the Ganges of the lower regions, and they beheld
a heavenly grove on a silver plain. It had splendid coral, camphor,
sandal, and aloes trees, and was perfumed with the fragrance of large
full-blown golden lotuses. And in the middle of it they saw a lofty
temple of Siva. It was of vast extent, adorned with stairs of jewels;
its walls were of gold, it glittered with many pillars of precious
stone; and the spacious translucent body of the edifice was built of
blocks of the moon-gem.
Then king Bhúnandana and the pupils of that ascetic, who possessed
supernatural insight, were cheered, and he said to them, "This is the
dwelling of the god Siva, who inhabits the lower regions in the form of
Hátakesvara, and whose praises are sung in the three worlds, so worship
him." Then they all bathed in the Ganges of the lower regions, and
worshipped Siva with various flowers, the growth of Pátála. And after
the brief refreshment of worshipping Siva, they went on and reached a
splendid lofty jambu-tree, the fruits of which were ripe and falling
on the ground. And when the ascetic saw it, he said to them; "You
must not eat the fruits of this tree, for, if eaten, they will impede
the success of what you have in hand." In spite of his prohibition
one of his pupils, impelled by hunger, ate a fruit of the tree, and,
as soon as he had eaten it, he became rigid and motionless. [237]
Then the other pupils, seeing that, were terrified, and no longer felt
any desire to eat the fruit; and that ascetic, accompanied by them
and king Bhúnandana, went on only a cos further, and beheld a lofty
golden wall rising before them, with a gate composed of a precious
gem. On the two sides of the gate they saw two rams with bodies of
iron, ready to strike with their horns, put there to prevent any one
from entering. But the ascetic suddenly struck them a blow on their
heads with a charmed wand, and drove them off somewhere, as if they
had been struck by a thunderbolt. Then he and his pupils and that
king entered by that gate, and beheld splendid palaces of gold and
gems. And at the door of every one they beheld warders terrible with
many teeth and tusks, [238] with iron maces in their hands. And then
they all sat down there under a tree, while the ascetic entered into a
mystic contemplation to avert evil. And by means of that contemplation
all those terrible warders were compelled to flee from all the doors,
and disappeared.
And immediately there issued from those doors lovely women with
heavenly ornaments and dresses, who were the attendants of those
Daitya maidens. They approached separately all there present, the
ascetic among them, and invited them in the name of their mistresses
into their respective palaces. And the ascetic, having now succeeded
in his enterprise, said to all the others,--"You must none of you
disobey the command of your beloved after entering her palace." Then
he entered with a few of those attendants a splendid palace, and
obtained a lovely Daitya maiden and the happiness he desired. And
the others singly were introduced into magnificent palaces by other
of the attendants, and were blessed with the love of Daitya maidens.
And the king Bhúnandana was then conducted by one of the attendants,
who bowed respectfully to him, to a palace built of gems outside the
wall. Its walls of precious stone were, so to speak, adorned all round
with living pictures, on account of the reflections on them of the
lovely waiting-women. It was built on a platform of smooth sapphire,
and so it appeared as if it had ascended to the vault of heaven, in
order to outdo a sky-going chariot. [239] It seemed like the house
of the Vrishnis, [240] made rich by means of the power of Vishnu. In
it sported fair ones wild with intoxication, and it was full of the
charming grace of Cupid. Even a flower, that cannot bear the wind and
the heat, would in vain attempt to rival the delicacy of the bodies
of the ladies in that palace. It resounded with heavenly music,
and when the king entered it, he beheld once more that beautiful
Asura maiden, whom he had seen in a dream. Her beauty illuminated
the lower world which has not the light of the sun or the stars,
and made the creation of sparkling jewels and other lustrous things,
an unnecessary proceeding on the part of the Creator. [241]
The king gazed with tears of joy on that indescribably beautiful
lady, and, so to speak, washed off from his eyes the pollution,
which they had contracted by looking at others. And that girl, named
Kumudiní, who was being praised by the songs of female attendants,
[242] felt indescribable joy when she saw the prince. She rose up,
and took him by the hand and said to him, "I have caused you much
suffering," and then with all politeness she conducted him to a
seat. And after he had rested a little while, he bathed, and the
Asura maiden had him adorned with robes and jewels, and led him out
to the garden to drink. Then she sat down with him on the brink of a
tank filled with wine, and with the blood and fat of corpses, that
hung from trees on its banks, and she offered that king a goblet,
full of that fat and wine, to drink, but he would not accept the
loathsome compound. And she kept earnestly saying to the king:
"You will not prosper if you reject my beverage." But he answered,
"I certainly will not drink that undrinkable compound, whatever may
happen." Then she emptied the goblet on his head and departed; and
the king's eyes and mouth were suddenly closed, and her maids took
him and flung him into the water of another tank.
And the moment he was thrown into the water, he found himself once more
in the grove of ascetics, near the holy bathing-place of Kramasaras,
where he was before. [243] And when he saw the mountain there, as it
were, laughing at him with its snows, [244] the disappointed king,
despondent, astonished, and bewildered, reflected as follows: "What
a difference there is between the garden of the Daitya maiden and
this mountain of Kramasaras. Ah! what is this strange event? Is it an
illusion or a wandering of the mind? But what other explanation can
there be than this, that undoubtedly this has befallen me, because,
though I heard the warning of the ascetic, I disobeyed the injunction
of that fair one. And after all the beverage was not loathsome; she
was only making trial of me; for the liquor, which fell upon my head,
has bestowed on it heavenly fragrance. So it is indubitable that,
in the case of the unfortunate, even great hardships endured bring
no reward, for Destiny is opposed to them." While king Bhúnandana
was engaged in these reflections, bees came and surrounded him on
account of the fragrant perfume of his body, that had been sprinkled
with the liquor offered by the Asura maiden. When those bees stung
the king, he thought to himself, "Alas! so far from my toils having
produced the desired fruit, they have produced disagreeable results,
as the raising of a Vetála does to a man of little courage." [245]
Then he became so distracted that he resolved on suicide.
And it happened that, at that very time, there came a young hermit
that way, who, finding the king in this state, and being of a merciful
disposition, went up to him and quickly drove away the bees, and
after asking him his story, said to him--"King, as long as we retain
this body, how can woes come to an end? So the wise should always
pursue without distraction the great object of human existence. And
until you perceive that Vishnu, Siva, and Brahmá are really one,
you will always find the successes, that are gained by worshipping
them separately, short-lived and uncertain. So meditate on Brahmá,
Vishnu, and Siva, in the light of their unity, and patiently perform
asceticism here for another twelve years. Then you shall obtain that
beloved, and eventually everlasting salvation; and observe, you have
already attained a body possessing heavenly fragrance. Now receive
from me this skin of a black antelope, to which a charm is attached,
and if you wrap yourself up in it, you will not be annoyed here by
bees." When the hermit had said this, he gave him the deer-skin and
the charm, and departed; and the king accepted his advice, and taking
to himself patience, so lived in that place. And after the king had
lived there twelve years, and propitiated Siva by penance, that Daitya
maiden, named Kumudiní, came to him of her own accord. And the king
went with that beloved to Pátála, and after he had lived with her a
long time in happiness, he attained salvation.
"So those fortunate ones, whose characters are free from perturbation,
and who betake themselves to patient endurance, obtain again their
own rank, though they may have fallen far from it. [246] And since
you, Srídarsana, are a man fated to be prosperous, being covered with
auspicious marks, why do you, out of perturbation, allow yourself to
go without food?" When Srídarsana, who was fasting, was thus addressed
in the gambling-hall by his friend Mukharaka, he said to him, "What
you say, is true, but being a man of good family, I cannot for shame
go out into this town, as I am reduced so low by gambling. So if
you will permit me, my friend, to go to some other country this very
night, I will take food." When Mukharaka heard that, he consented, and
brought food and gave it to him, and he ate it. And after Srídarsana
had eaten it, he set out for another country with that friend of his,
who followed him out of affection.
And as he was going along the road at night, it happened that the
two Yakshas, Attahása and Saudáminí, his father and mother, who had
deposited him, as soon as he was born, in the house of the Bráhman,
saw him while they were roaming through the air. When they saw him